


Sour

by WTFGayLittleZooid



Series: Kirby - Viva Piñata AU [5]
Category: Kirby (Video Games)
Genre: Angst, Nightmares, Viva Piñata AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-21
Updated: 2021-02-21
Packaged: 2021-03-18 17:26:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,469
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29612865
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WTFGayLittleZooid/pseuds/WTFGayLittleZooid
Series: Kirby - Viva Piñata AU [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2169591
Kudos: 15





	Sour

“Oh holy shit,” Dedede mumbled, in shock as he entered the garden. 

“Something wrong?” Meta Knight asked. “...I hope nothing is. I’m not particularly  _ familiar  _ with going off orders.”

“No- no, nothing is wrong. I told you, I’d rather you go off order,” Dedede chuckled, running a hand through his hair as he looked at the garden. He wasn’t sure what Meta Knight did exactly, but he definitely went and did  _ something  _ new that made parts of the garden pop. “What did you do?” The gardener asked, chuckling. 

“...well… I tried organizing the plants and bunching them together, and tried putting them around the trees. I also stopped by Daroach and bought some fencing and decorations, and tried making the grass and dirt look more natural,” Meta Knight explained, grinning under his mask. 

He was a helper in a garden. He hoped to get a garden all to himself one day, but with most plots full or on the complete other side of the island, he settled for being a helper. And he was one of the best ones there was. He could do any job, and do it well. 

He was particularly fond of Dedede, a gardener he became rather close with over the years he spent helping him. It felt less like a job and more like a hobby, though he still got paid very well. 

“I also talked to Gooey while you were away. They gave me some seeds I think you’d be interested in. Here,” Meta Knight continued to explain, unhooking a bag from their belt, and handing the bag of seeds to Dedede, who took it and emptied it out onto his hands. “There’s a snapdragon, water lily, and two monkeynut seeds.”

Dedede grinned. “Where should I put these?” He asked. 

“Anywhere that looks natural. Maybe close to a piñata’s house, a flower patch, whatever. Just… don’t scatter them with no thought again. It looks horrendous,” Meta Knight chuckled as he pointed to various areas. Dedede laughed, and playfully elbowed them in response. 

“Alright, alright, I won’t. Did you hear anything about a chewnicorn at least? I don’t want any piñatas getting  _ sick _ .” 

Meta Knight paused for a second completely, thinking.

…

“I talked to Bandana Dee. Told me something about a gem tree and how you need a  _ lot  _ of horstachios,” Meta Knight explained, rubbing his temples a little. His head felt slightly foggy. 

“Well I already have three, so it shouldn’t take too long right?” Dededede said, glancing over at his horstachio home, with the mentioned piñatas grazing around the outside of it. 

“I can start a small garden area for carrots, and perhaps you could collect some apples for Taranza to tinker? We can also both ask around about gem trees, I’m fairly certain Susanna or Sectonia might know about them,” Meta Knight suggested, making a mental note of buying more carrot seeds from Daroach, or asking from Gooey. 

“Good idea. I’ll ask Susie, you ask Sectonia,” Dedede suggested, and Meta Knight nodded. 

“I suggest saving up a little, too. I don’t think a gem seed is going to be particularly cheap,” Meta Knight was quick to add. Dedede laughed, knowing that he had more than enough coins to spare. 

“I’m being serious!” Meta Knight couldn’t suppress a chuckle.

“Fine, fine,” Dedede whined, ignoring Meta Knight’s eye roll. Dedede continued to look around the garden, and noticed the ponds. They were a little larger and seemed to look more natural as well as not be as rough on the edges. “Did you do anything to the ponds?” Dedede asked. 

“Yes I did. Is it alright?” Meta Knight asked, joining Dedede by the pond and looking in on it. He narrowed his eyes at his reflection. Something felt… off. He couldn’t place his finger on it. 

...was it his face?

He felt like the world around him froze as he reached towards his mask, about to pull it off. 

-

“Sure I know about them!” Sectonia’s voice snapped Meta Knight back to reality, as he quickly let go of his mask and frantically looked around. 

...huh… he was in.. Sectonia’s shop. Wasn't he just with Dedede? 

“You alright, Meta?” Sectonia asked, her kind and cheerful voice now had a more concerned tone. Meta Knight looked at her, rubbing his temples again for a few seconds. 

“Yes, I am alright. I was daydreaming,” he muttered. Despite his confident answer, he was unsure. Sectonia surprisingly seemed to buy it tho, grinning widely. 

“Oh okay~! But back to the topic, you wanted to know about gem trees right?” Sectonia asked, tilting her head a little. 

“Correct,” Meta Knight nodded. No use dwelling on what happened. Even if his chest felt a little tight. 

“Well I have some good news!” She clasped all six of her hands together. “The gem trees are relatively close to Dedede's garden! Though I’m gonna go out on a limb and say you need a seed.”

He nodded again. “Yes, we do need a seed.”

Sectonia cringed a little, trying to think. “...maybe ask Gooey for a gem seed? I don’t know much about the seeds themselves, I just use the gems to catch the piñatas,” Sectonia anxiously chuckled. “...sorry.”

Meta Knight shook his head. He smiled underneath his mask, and while most of his face was covered he hoped she would still see the gesture somehow. “No need to apologize, Sectonia. This was more than enough information. I should leave now, but it’s always a pleasure to speak with you,” Meta Knight waved goodbye to Sectonia, who beamed and waved goodbye as well. 

As he left through the door, Meta Knight stopped again. 

He needed to see his reflection. 

He didn’t know why, but he  _ had  _ to. 

He looked around, failing to notice how he was no longer at the village but instead in the swamp. His boots had water in them but he needed to see his reflection. He looked down in the murky water and looked.

Something was off.

Something was so horribly wrong but he couldn’t tell with the mask on. He pushed down the stinging pain in his chest, the cramps in his upper back as he reached for his mask. 

“Here it is!” 

Meta Knight nearly snapped his neck from how hard he whipped around, taken completely aback from Gooey running up to him and got distracted once more. 

“One gem seed! One of my most favorite seeds!” Gooey’s voice slurred and their long pink scarf trailed behind them even as they stopped. Meta Knight looked at the gem seed in Gooey’s hands. It was pretty. It looked like a white and yellow seed but in a diamond shape.

“...and I can just… have this?” Meta Knight asked, a little confused and unsure. 

“Uh… um..” Gooey thought, scratching their head as they held the seed in hand. “...yes. You are one of my closest friends!” 

“...okay then,” Meta Knight said, taking the seed and watching Gooey smile brightly. Well, he could tell from their eyes, since the pink scarf covered their mouth. “I appreciate it, and I’m sure Dedede will too. If any of your shellybeans get… uh..  _ sick _ , bring it to us and we can see if the chewnicorn can hopefully heal it.”

Meta Knight nearly gagged when he said the word sick, the pain in his chest and head spiking horribly when he did. Gooey didn’t seem to notice his pain thankfully. 

“Ohhh okay! Thank you!” Gooey happily said, words slurring together and they quickly left.

...weird. They would normally stay for longer. But a part of Meta Knight was thankful he left. He knew he should get this back to Dedede, but…

He turned back to the water. 

It wasn’t murky. 

He wasn’t in the swamp anymore.

He wasn’t sure where he was.

...his only guess was the jungle, since the water was crystal clear and he could see vines in the corner of his vision. He wasn’t sure how he got there, but he couldn’t look away from his reflection in the water. Even if the place felt eerily familiar. 

Something was still off. 

…

Nobody was around. So Meta Knight finally reached for his mask, nervously taking it off. He nearly screamed from surprise when he saw his face. Yet he couldn’t scream, and he couldn’t even breathe. His throat and chest felt so tight like someone was strangling him and his head felt like it was being stabbed with a knife. In his reflection, he didn’t even have a face. It was just a black void, but he didn’t even get the chance to dwell on that before he fell to his knees in the water and held his head, desperately trying to scream for help when he couldn’t even breathe. 

When he finally took a hand off his head to try and balance himself, he felt something in his hand. 

He already knew what it was, but looked anyways.

An all too familiar black and red empty candy wrapper was in his hands. It didn’t have the normal pattern, it twisted and was much more violent than the regular sour candy. 

Meta Knight started to gag as he struggled more and more to breathe, desperately trying to unclog whatever was in his throat. It wasn’t until he looked up and saw Nightmare, when he finally woke up. 

Meta Knight sat up so quickly he nearly felt dizzy, the sour mallowolf and cocoadile he was napping with waking up and looking at him with confusion. The reaper still couldn’t breathe, and while the memories from his nightmare were already starting to slip away, he quickly realized the issue. Gagging, Meta Knight quickly got up and ran to a window (aka a large hole in the back of the tree that he threw a tattered piece of fabric over) and coughed out a  _ lot  _ of tar like vomit onto the sand. 

His wings protectively wrapped around himself as he suffered, and he could still hear the sours curiously walk to him. After his body was done rejecting a hole bucket’s worth of sourness, he stayed there, trying to catch his breath as he panted heavily, exhausted. 

His head still stung a little. Like it always did. He felt weak, like his body was moments away from turning to dust. He knew how to fix that. After a few more moments of exhausted and heavy breathing, Meta wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, turning around. He stared as the sour mallowolf began hacking. While most gardeners were disgusted by this, Meta Knight understood it. He sighed, walking next to the coughing piñata, and began to lightly hit the back of its neck. 

“...let it out.. that’s right,” Meta Knight mumbled, his voice raspy and shrill. Eventually, the sour mallowolf coughed out two sour candies. Once that was over, it started to wag its tail as Meta Knight started to pet its chin, praising it. 

“Good work,” he smiled, trying not to cringe at his high pitched and raspy voice. “Now go and terrorize some helpers for me. Bring back anything they drop,” Meta Knight, already feeling a little better telling the mallowolf to harass whatever poor helper it came across. It panted, wagging its tail for giving Meta Knight a quick lick, and running off. Hopefully that would make the mallowolf feel better too. 

There was a confused groan from the sour cocoadile, who was wagging its tail. “...go ahead and bite a helper for me, okay?” Meta Knight chuckled, scratching the sour cocoadile on the head before it happily ran off shortly after the sour mallowolf. 

Once the two were gone, Meta Knight grabbed the sour candy off the ground. While those sours were feeling better, Meta Knight still felt awful. His whole body still felt weak and he was heavily relying on his wings for balance. His head was killing him, and the stained vomit on his chin was still burning his skin a little due to how acidic the sourness was. He could fix it though, just like how he could temporarily fix his fucked up voice. 

Meta Knight went to the dirty and dusty room where he kept and tampered with candy. It was horribly looked down upon to touch candy, since it was what pinatas were made out of, but at this point anything that made others uncomfortable made Meta Knight thrive. Sour nature at its best. Meta Knight placed the… rather disgusting sour candies on a shelf (aka fucked up tree root) with the other sour candies, placing them in an unlabeled “unclean” pile while taking a few from the “clean” pile. He leaned against the wall, taking off his mask with his free hand and placing it next to him. 

Sabre entered the room, the small s’morepion climbing up the wall to be next to Meta Knight. The reaper chuckled as he unwrapped one of the sour candies, tossing the wrapper to the side. The s’morepion started to sniff the sour candy, and Meta Knight chuckled, pushing its face away while also scratching its head.

“Don’t do that, I can’t risk you getting sick,” Meta Knight said. The s’morepion hung its head, upset since it wanted food. Meta Knight popped a sour candy in his mouth, eating it with no issue. In fact, the second he ate it, his headache was almost gone and he didn’t feel nearly as weak anymore. Meta Knight ate the second sour candy quickly, tossing the wrapper before grabbing the jar of life candies. 

Life candy was fascinating. Something so sweet, and something so treasured on this island. Piñata couldn’t die. Even if another piñata ate its life candy, it would just come back to life on another part of the island. Even if it was smashed. Nothing could truly kill a piñata. 

The closest thing was keeping them secluded so they couldn’t come back, even if Meta had a reason.

Meta Knight reached into the jar and grabbed a buzzlegum candy, smiling as he gave it to Sabre, who gladly ate it, purring. “Good boy,” Meta Knight chuckled, petting his piñata as it ate.

Meta Knight put the jar back with his free hand. 

Keeping the life candies was something he felt rather bad about from time to time, but… he’d rather keep them and let them come back on his own terms rather than Nightmare get to them. He knows everybody thinks he’s affiliated with Nightmare; that he breaks piñatas and brings the life candy to him to corrupt. That couldn’t be further from the truth. Breaking pinatas is awful, sure, but he physically and mentally thrives off doing awful things like any other sour. But even he has his limits and he’ll try his best at making sure piñatas don’t go through what he had to. 


End file.
